Is Wheels our grinder?

by muffinman on Jan 26, 2011 10:58 PM EST

I don't need to tell many of you that Shawn Thornton is the man and Soup is a great pickup. Together (as Thornton said and proved for years) we have a hell of a "fourth" line.

But Blake Wheeler takes critistsim because he has higher expectations as a 5th overall choice. Can't we just call him a bust then make him the perfect grinder for Campbell and THOR to work with now the Marsh has clicked with bergy and rex?

He's only missed one regular season game before and averages about 20 goals a year with an normal TOI. Remember though, that his rookie season was a bit misleading of his capablities. Our offense was great that year and he played on a line with Krejci and Ryder who both had thier best totals. then the next year he plays one less game and had 3 less goals.

He's played good on the fourth line and hes played with THOR in the past. Also his cap hit isn't as bad as it could be for a 20 goal scorer. this brings me back to the idea ive been pressing lately to keep Ryder and Wheels if they take a paycut, so hypotheticelly if they both did who would we keep?

Thoughts?

Poll

If you could only resign one for 2.5 million a year who would you keep?

Michael Ryder

21 votes

Blake Wheeler

45 votes

66 votes | Poll has closed

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see here is the problem i have with wheeler…. if we could hold on to wheeler for 1-1.5 million a year, i would take that…. however, there are a lot of teams who will probably pay wheeler a lot more than that, and i sure he would be very happy to take more money to go somewhere else… he could be another wideman, he could go to a smaller market (think nashville or atlanta type markets), make 2.5 million a year, and he wouldn’t get any crap for it, because noone cares about hockey, however, he comes here, makes the same amount, with the same output, and he is a pariah…. wheeler will be gone next year, and he will get his 2.5 million a year

by BlueNGoldBomber on Jan 26, 2011 11:59 PM EST reply actions

I said Ryder in the poll, but the more I think about it, I’m not sure. Ryder is an extremely one-dimensional player. If he’s not scoring, he’s probably not helping you. And yes, he is hopeless in his own half of the ice, and there is no reason to expect that to change. But Ryder’s low +/- is deceptive because he does so much damage on the power play. That has value, especially for a power play like Boston’s, which has been prone to droughts.

Wheeler isn’t a bad defensive player, but he looks like he’s never going to fulfill the huge potential he has. He just doesn’t play with the aggression he needs to. I don’t know why, and I’m sure Claude Julien doesn’t either. He is what he is; if you want Milan Lucic, sign Milan Lucic. But Wheeler won’t be Lucic v.2.0, with less ass-kicking and more penalty killing.

I don’t know; neither one is known for their effort on a night to night basis. But this team probably needs Ryder’s scoring a little more than Wheeler’s all-around game. So I guess I’d say Ryder by a hair.

by Phunwin on Jan 27, 2011 10:53 AM EST reply actions